


Wash Away

by glorious_spoon



Series: Tumblr/Twitter Prompt Fic [52]
Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22988020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glorious_spoon/pseuds/glorious_spoon
Summary: Jack was so focused on keeping his footing that he almost didn’t hear Daniel say, quietly, “It’s just, I can’t see.”
Relationships: Peggy Carter & Daniel Sousa & Jack Thompson
Series: Tumblr/Twitter Prompt Fic [52]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1313993
Comments: 11
Kudos: 67





	Wash Away

**Author's Note:**

> For a tumblr prompt from laylainalaska, who asked for _any combination of the Peggy-Jack-Daniel trio: getting something corrosive/poisonous splashed in your face or eyes._

They were halfway down the hillside, the entrance to the bunker yawning like a toothless mouth above them, when Daniel started struggling. It was twitchy, uncoordinated, and still nearly enough to knock all three of them off balance on the uncertain terrain. Which would be just what they needed right now. Maybe they could all bust their skulls at the bottom of the ravine and save the extraction team the trouble of picking them up.

“Knock it off,” Jack snapped, flinging out his free hand like he could steady himself on thin air and nearly going down anyway. It was Peggy who yanked them both upright, her mouth set in a grim line.

She still managed to sound gentler than Jack had when she spoke, though. “Daniel, you’re safe. It’s us, you’re safe. We’re getting you out of here.”

Daniel had gone still when Jack spoke, and now he sagged in their arms. It was better than the struggling had been, but only barely.

“Oh,” he said. It sounded uncharacteristically small. Peggy shot Jack a worried look over Daniel’s head, which didn’t make him feel any better. Daniel should have been shrugging them off, insisting that he was fine, trying to make the climb down on his own. He definitely shouldn’t have still been hanging onto _Jack_ for dear life.

“You alright there, Sousa?”

“I--yeah,” Daniel said. They made it a few more yards down--the underbrush was starting to clear, sparse winter thickets giving way to a stony river bank sloping steeply to the quick stream below. It wasn’t quite steep enough here that a wrong step would send them tumbling into water that was probably a few degrees shy of freezing, but it wasn’t far off, either, and none of them were exactly dressed for this kind of terrain. It was lucky that Peggy had managed to get a call in to their extraction team before she blew half the bunker sky-high. Otherwise they’d have all been spending a cold and uncomfortable night camping in their street clothes. Jack’s shoes were _not_ made for this. He was so focused on keeping his footing that he almost didn’t hear Daniel say, quietly, “It’s just, I can’t see.”

“What?”

Daniel lifted his head. His eyes were red and puffy, streaming tears, but that wasn’t what had Jack’s heart go cold in his chest. Whatever experimental chemical gas those guards had been carrying had spread through most of the complex by the time they got Daniel out; his own eyes were still sore and stinging. But Daniel’s were dazed, unfocused, sliding over him without recognition. His jaw tensed, and then he turned away from Jack. “I can’t see. Anything.”

Peggy swore under her breath, her face washed of color in the gathering dusk.

“The river,” Jack said quickly, and she nodded.

“Daniel, there’s water--we’re going to try to wash it out. Alright?”

“Sure,” Daniel muttered. There was an edge to his voice that could have been anger or fear. That stubborn consternation was something Jack had heard from him a dozen times, when his leg failed him on a chase or pained him at the end of a long shift. The fear, though…

He hadn’t often heard Daniel sound afraid, and maybe that was what made him offer, as sincerely as he knew how, “You’re gonna be fine, Sousa. It’ll be okay.”

“You don’t know that,” Daniel said flatly, but they were at the edge of the water now and Jack was saved from having to find a response to that by Peggy dragging them both to their knees on the stone riverbank.

“Here,” she said briskly. “Daniel, lean forward--keep your eyes open as much as you can, please. I’ll steady you. Jack—”

“I got it,” Jack said, already scooping water into his cupped hands. It was so cold that it felt like jamming his hands into a bundle of knives, and Daniel gasped out loud when it hit his face. He didn’t flinch away, though, when Jack poured more water into his eyes, trying to remember all of the first aid and lab safety courses he’d mostly dozed through back in the day: keep flushing for up to fifteen minutes, use warm water--no luck there--clear the toxins out.

And hope like hell that they hadn’t done any permanent damage. A shiver rolled up his arms and turned into a full-body shudder when it hit his spine, but he didn’t stop. His own eyes stung and burned. From the gas, maybe. Probably.

Daniel was flailing at them again, pushing himself upright. His hand landed on Jack’s shoulder, gripped tight. He shook his head, then looked up.

His eyes were still streaming, his face wet, his collar and the front of his shirt soaked through. His eyelashes were clumped together, his eyes bloodshot and puffy.

“Sousa?” Jack asked, carefully. On Daniel’s other side, Peggy straightened up. Daniel blinked, winced, then blinked again, and finally, finally, his dark eyes focused on Jack’s face. “Can you see me?”

“Yeah,” Daniel said. His shoulders sagged, the tension in his body unraveling. “Yeah, I see you.”

“Oh, thank Christ,” he said, all at once. Peggy let out a high, strained bark of laughter and pulled Daniel into a tight hug. He hugged her back, pushing his face into her neck; his other hand didn’t leave Jack’s shoulder.

They sat like that on the riverbank for a long time.


End file.
